414 ENSILAGE. 



It is especially suited for clay land, where turnips are 

 grown with difficulty, and where the land is frequently 

 too wet for grazing. 



It is found to produce an increased flow of milk when fed 

 to dairy cows, and does not affect the taste of the milk 

 or the butter. It may also enable dairy farmers to 

 begin cheese making at an earlier date. 



It would be suitable for lambing ewes if acceptable to them 

 as fodder, and would especially secure the safety and 

 progress of hill stock in severe winters and seasons 

 when grass is late of coming. 



It is able to be kept for a long time, and can be turned out 

 in good condition when stored turnips are rapidly 

 decaying or entirely used up. 



When properly made it is not liable to any accident, and 

 reduces the feeding of stock to a system of the utmost 

 simplicity. 



PRACTICAL METHOD OF TESTING SOILS. 

 By Dr A. P. Aitkex. 



Seven-Plot Test. 



In last year's volume of the Transactions (pp. 251-259) there 

 was published the report of a considerable number of experi- 

 ments, upon a uniform basis, conducted by farmers in various 

 parts of the country, for the purpose of testing the manurial 

 wants of their soils. The substances experimented with were 

 the three ingredients of most importance in manures, viz., phos- 

 phoric acid, ammonia, and potash; and these were so applied as 

 to furnish the experimenter with an analysis of his soil of a more 

 practically useful kind than could be obtained in a chemical 

 laboratory. The reports sent in by the various experimenters 

 showed how great was the utility of such a system of soil- 

 testing. It was found that on some farms the great want of the 

 soil, as regards turnip-growing, w^as phosphates, and some soils 

 required these in a soluble and others in an insoluble condition. 

 On other soils it was found that the chief obstacle to the obtain- 

 ing of a full crop of turnips was the want of nitrogen in the 

 soil, and on others it was evident that potash was a much- 

 wanted ingredient. Guided by the indications afforded by the 

 test, the experimenters were in a position to mix up a turnip 

 manure exactly suited to the requirements of their soils, and 

 were thus enaloled not only to avoid spending money on useless 

 manurial ingredients, but also to escape the disappointment of 

 finding that, after spending much money on manure, they had 



